Nurse suspended for tablet orders
A woman who runs a health business has been suspended from being a nurse after “using her position of trust” to order tablets for herself.
Qualified nurse Anita Human, the managing director of Human Touch Health Group, faced a hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
She was found guilty of six charges relating to the ordering of Co-codamol tablets in a misconduct hearing while a further charge was dismissed.
At the end of the week long hearing in September she was suspended for a year.
Ms Human was accused of three charges of ordering 1,000 or more Co-codamol tablets when there was no business requirement for the medications in October 2010, July 2011 and March 2012.
She was also charged that on more than one occasion ordered Co-codamol for personal use when there was no business need and the final charge stated that Ms Human’s “conduct was dishonest and that she used her position of trust to make gain for herself.”
A further charge of ordering 1,000 Co-codamol tablets on May 25, 2011 for personal use when there was no business need was dismissed by the hearing due to insufficient evidence.
At the time Ms Human was a managing director of Human Touch Ambulance Ltd, in Bourne, which she founded. The business went into liquidation in the Summer.
She is still a managing director of the firm’s parent company Human Touch Health Group, also based in Bourne.
Through her role with Human Touch, the hearing heard, Ms Human had allegedly ordered large quantities of Co-codamol tablets which contain the class B drug Codeine. Human Touch was claimed to normally use around 100 Co-codamol tablets a year.
It was stated that Ms Human’s conduct was dishonest and that she used a position of trust to make a gain for herself.
The matters were revealed when members of Human Touch staff investigated invoices received by the company over a number of months and found that the number of tablets ordered was very high.
When Ms Human was challenged about the tablets she made admissions but then tried to cover up her actions by falsifying company documents using Tippex.
The hearing heard that on October 27, 2016 at Lincoln Crown Court Ms Human had also pleaded guilty to one charge of possession of a controlled class B drug and received a fine.
Speaking after the hearing Ms Human said: “This was a fundamental error of judgement that I deeply regret.
“It happened during a period of great stress and deep unhappiness in both my personal and professional life, and I am grateful to the Nursing and Midwifery Council for taking this into consideration when reaching its decision.”
